.buck//Moment

Applejack carefully opened the door, creeping outside. A cool night breeze welcomed her, carrying a few stray leaves away. The sky was calm and cloudless, stars dotted across it, with the pale moon overhead, illuminating the landscape with a subtle glow. The view calmed her nerves, as she gingerly shut the door behind her, trying to make as little noise as possible. The last thing she needed was Big Mac waking up and stumbling upon her in the middle of this. Oh how interesting that would be to explain. Breathing deeply, she trotted down the path towards the barn, stopping only to grab a small bag from a barrel by the entrance, and carrying it inside in her teeth. It was silent inside, thankfully, and Applejack quickly clambered up to the hidden attic. Pushing aside some tactically placed hay bales, she was greeted with the warm glow and hum as the gift Twilight had sent her buzzed into life. Placing the bag by it, she watched the screen.

Computers were still new to Applejack, and she didn't entirely trust them. But Twilight had convinced her that she needed to try this out, even just once. So she'd accepted, not wanting to turn her friend down. Plus, she might finally get to see for herself what the new craze with the rest of the group was. Rooting through the bag, she dug out two boxes, one book sized, and the other nearly twice that.

The first was covered with a dramatic image of Equestria from afar. Across the it in bold, bronze font was written the words 'The World', with the subtitle of 'The Definitive Multiplayer RPG'. Twilight had explained to her that it stood for 'Role-playing Game', and after seeing Applejack's raised eyebrow had to hastily explain the different meaning in 'video games'. Even after an hour long lecture she still didn't get it. Why would somepony pretend to be somepony else? As far as she thought, everypony was who they were, no need to change. She accepted her friends for themselves, and hopefully they did the same for her.

“Well, maybe Rainbow could deflate that ego o' hers a lil” she muttered under her breath, then jumped as the machine in front of her let out a loud 'bing!' to signal that it had finished loading. She watched the words spread across the screen, eventually settling on CelestiOS, and the menu options came up. Opening the book-sized box, she stared at the circular object held within. It was shiny, and looked like it might break if she so much as looked at it funny. Carefully, she recalled the instructions Twilight had spent what felt like hours drilling into her head: hitting the button marked 'Eject', watching a tray slide out from the side of the machine and placing the disk inside. The tray slid back into the computer as it whirred far more loudly for a few seconds, Applejack looked around in mild panic in case she woke somepony up. A box popped up in the middle of the screen, and she squinted at it.

Disk: THE WORLD detected. Install?

Placing a hoof on the pad in the centre, which Twilight had helpfully labelled a 'touchpad', she moved the cursor over the 'Yes' option. It felt odd, watching this tiny arrow move in response to her actions, even though she wasn't actually physically manipulating it. She resisted the temptation to prod the screen, and simply watched as the box vanished and a grey bar appeared, slowly filling with blue. Very slowly, Applejack realised, and she quickly got bored and turned her attention to the rest of the bag's contents.

Opening the other box, she pulled out the strange u-shaped device. It was remarkably light, with lines of colour dancing across it and switches across the side. Remembering further instructions, she flicked the switches in a set order and watched as another dialogue box appeared on the computer screen.

Virtual Gaming Headset detected. Install?

Again, Applejack hit the 'Yes' option, far more confident in manipulating the arrow this time. Another bar appeared beneath the previous one and filled with blue after only a few seconds, and a small message popped up in the corner, confirming successful installation. Turning her attention to the remaining bar she shuffled nervously as it crept towards completion. She still wasn't entirely convinced in the safety of this thing and was debating whether or not to just give up and tell Twilight she didn't like it when a soft 'ding' made her decision for her. Glancing up, the bar was filled, and the screen flickered to black. Before she could worry about having broken it, a line of white text appeared in the centre of the screen.

Please follow the instructions for a safe and entertaining experience.

The text faded and was replaced with an image of a silhouetted pony standing in front of a screen, facing forwards. Applejack copied it, rising to all fours. The image changed soon after, to the character placing the visor on their face, then quickly returning all of their hooves to the ground. Applejack gulped nervously at the device to her side, and picked it up warily, placing it on her face and standing stock still, staring ahead. The darkness she'd been plunged into worried her, and she barely kept herself from throwing the thing off her face.

Then the game logged in. She watched in terror as she found herself falling through an endless void, bright colours and lines of energy dancing across her vision. And promptly, she lost her nerve, leaping backwards with all her might.

It wasn't until Applejack was in midair that she realised she'd just jumped off of her little platform. She barely managed to mutter 'horseapples' before she landed in a heap, fortunately into a stray hay bale. As she lay there, staring upwards at the ceiling while tiny stars danced around her head, she reflected. Maybe she'd overreacted. Besides, it wasn't like it had stopped the others from playing the game. Twilight could have least warned her about that though. She certainly felt stupid now, as she rolled upright and stretched her aching back. After a few moments break, she headed back up.

Returning to the required position, she took a few deep breaths and pressed the visor back onto her face. It was, fortunately, unharmed, even when Applejack had thrown it against the wall with all her might. Given how flimsy it looked, she was impressed, and slightly annoyed. She'd get revenge on it somehow.

This time when the wormhole appeared she steeled herself against it, drinking in the feeling of falling without actually falling. It made her giddy and slightly dizzy, but she held on until it faded, and she shook her head clear. Looking around, she found herself facing a blank mannequin in the centre of a plain white room. Messages popped up all around her, about 'character creation' and with all sorts of information, but there was way too much for her to take in. Gingerly, she reached a hoof out to touch the central figure, and as she did so its surface rippled slightly and morphed, changing shape and colour and growing a mane and tail. After a few tense moments, it was done, and she took in its appearance. It looked like her, which was actually quite creepy, as she circled it curiously. Nodding, she looked around for some kind of help, then a floating box labelled 'Continue' caught her eye. Boldly she pressed her hoof to it, and the scene around her changed. Now, she was looking at herself, but in an outfit. It was simple, a dark brown tunic buttoned over her chest, with a pale blue undershirt. Across the front were three golden clasps, but since the outfit didn't seem to open, she regarded them inquisitively, and wondered what exactly they were supposed to do. Shrugging, she pressed the continue option again, and watched as everything changed around her. Now her doppelganger was standing with a plain-looking sword in its mouth, looking confident and ready for combat. It danced around a few times, as though fighting an invisible enemy. Tilting her head, she regarded it for a few seconds before nodding, pressing the continue button one last time. Momentarily, she was blinded by a flash of light as the scene in front of her faded.

Looking down, she saw herself wearing the outfit on the mannequin, the sword sheathed along her side, and cautiously tried to move. The clothes felt natural, non-restrictive, and she couldn't help but grin. Reaching a hoof up, she murmured in disappointment at the lack of her trademark hat, but shrugged in acceptance. Prancing around in a circle for a bit, she was suddenly interrupted by a grey box appearing in front of her face, causing her to fall back on her haunches in surprise. Shaking her head, she glared at it, grumbling.

Enter name:

Beneath the words were the alphabet, but in a weird order, like the one on that computer thing. Eyebrow raised, she typed her name in, but finding the letters was an exercise in frustration. Sitting back, she pressed the 'Accept' button. Another message came up.

Name: Applejack ? Are you sure? This cannot be changed once finalized.

Raising an eyebrow, she pressed the confirm option. “It's not like mah name's gonna change.”

A rush of light surrounded her, and the world fell away, replaced with a small body of text.

Welcome to The World!

Now Logging In

Area:

Δ Server

Aqua Capital

Mac Anu